Oh, boy, where to begin...The founders had great respect for their employees. No more. It is all about reducing, reducing, reducing. No raises for years. Workload from laid-off co-workers dumped in your lap, then again. Benefits and bonus cut to the bone. Long hours expected. No training budgets. "Cost effective" cubicle arrangements. They took a very motivated and committed community of employees and systematically squeezed out every ounce of drive and initiative. Very talented electrical, mechanical, and software engineers forced to become spec writers and outsource contractor coordinators. Very sad. Things are no longer "Invented" at HP, only acquired, coordinated, and managed. My main regret is that I did not leave before I witnessed the demise of this once great company.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Read and embrace the book "The HP Way" by Bill Hewlett before it is too late.

Worked at HP in R&D and IT for over 25 years. The trade rags consistently rated HP as one of the top couple of companies to work for in my early years, and I found it to be so. We had nothing but smart and enthusiastic people and a collegial work environment. Management was Engineering-wise and showed the highest level of respect for employees. Turnover was very low and the company was very profitable making and selling leading edge technology. However, that was a long time ago and there have not been any “Pros” to working there since.

Cons

Constant layoffs and offshoring: That has been the total story now for 15 years. The succession of incompetents that HP’s board has hired as CEO have caused HP to miss every market inflection in its space, debauched HP's brand, and starved HP's new product pipeline. They have destroyed HP’s culture of respect and have replaced it with a culture of fear, anxiety, and employee flight. They have turned HP into a very grim place to work. Because they dumped all of HP's “expensive” top talent, replaced it with cheap low-end talent, and moved HP into businesses that make and sell cheap crap at low margins, HP has devolved into a true idiocracy that cannot make any money. As such, it can no longer provide its employees a competitive compensation package or any opportunities for growth. Consequently, the best citizens of HP's idiocracy – the ones that are not promptly fired and replaced with even cheaper labor – leave the company as soon as they can, thus accelerating HP's death spiral.

Advice to ManagementAdvice

You and the HP Board have ruined a once great company. It is now like an obsolete battleship rusting away in harbor and awaiting its future as scrap.